42 have been working intermittently along the row for days are finally shutting down. Although the line of houses that forms the center of Worton appears to lie on a flat plane, actually the land tilts slightly east to west. Water pumped from the Har- rells' basement that doesn't reach the ditch by the road tends to settle around the Rowlands' place, until it is pumped from their basement And so on down the line If the ditch isn't kept cleared, front lawns become shallow, stagnant lakes. "They always dressed her skimpy in the summers," Paula is telling Mrs. Presnell. They're watching Marsha, who's calling for people to come and get 'em. "I've never been to a party for a convict before." "A nice boy can get in so much trouble," Mrs. Presnell says. "I like them as a couple, though." No one wants to step between the shining faces Barry and Marsha have for each other. Village mates from the start, they glided all the way into love -on hayrides, school-bus rides, and now joyrides. Paula has found out they're not sending Barry to the prison in Peters- burg. Instead, he's going to be kept here in Stilson County, at Camp 23, and worked on one of the road gangs. "Better to be out-of-doors, don't you think?" she asks Reah, who tries to ignore the question but can't because Paula is eXplaining to her that some of the men in the prisons are forced to take male lovers. Reah knows Paula and some of the other guests have emptied their ice on the ground and are drinking their tea lukewarm. "They can't shoot at a misde- meanor," Reah hears behind her. "Barry's a misdemeanor." It's his lit- tle brother, Martin, telling Peter Kearns that Barry won't have to worry about the guards. "Oh, yeah?" Peter says. "Running from a road gang is a felony. You can shoot at a felony. You have to. A guard that doesn't shoot gets sus- pended forty days." How do they know about these things, Reah wonders. And which one of them is right? The young people have asked the Harrells if they can use the stereo and put the speakers outside. They go home for favorite records, and soon someone is playing a Johnny Cash album of prison songs. When Reah hears "just doing my time," she sends FAR.M LIFE Our contract with this world is not complete. The natural objects seem reticent, the dogwood hesitates up and down the rIdge to open its skim-milk blossoms It is afraid of our disapproval, or that we will be merely obtuse in not seeing its analogies, the petals rusted as if nailed shut all winter. They are wallflowers, so I assure them again that they are invited. We will do so much for money. My father allows the lumber company to come in for selective cutting. The trees hide behind each other because they have nothing to gain by standing on tiptoe, the graceful ones, or at attention, those that are serious and make efforts at subservience. They only end up in other people's woodboxes. I can promise them nothing. Only the machines rest easy in the shed. They know they will clear the fields adequately and will turn chaos into salable bundles. This is farm life, where we work at cross-purposes with what was intended. The monolithic bodies of the cows turn shy as we move across the grass toward them. Ahead of us they mingle with the trees. The calves unfold from their mothers' wombs in the equivalent dark of the forest. Once we cut a hole too large in the nipple of a bottle and drowned a calf with nourishment My father and I are complicitous on this earth, though there are things we don't speak of: the way he stacks his pennies in regular columns and places his shoes by the bed as if he stood over himself while sleeping. He knows the mimosa leaves will close if he touches them with his hands, that the earth as yet is reluctant to receive him. -SUSAN PROSPERE . . Jonah to take it off, but it's too late. Barry and Marsha have begun to sing along with the others. Worse, some- one has bought beer, and the teen- agers are drinking it. Without saying goodbye, Barry's parents are setting off down the road to their house. "Run," Reah tells J 0- nah. "Say this isn't what we planned at all." Jonah starts after them but decides to let them go. When he comes back, Reah offers him tea "Yes, but hold the ice," he says. Reah doesn't think it's funny. "Ev- eryone knows about the water prob- lems," she says. Paula, listening in again, says, "Yes, the Criders wanted to build a cabin on the back of their lot for Barry. A place for him to be alone, you know. But, of course, they couldn't get the permit for a new drain field." Later, cleaning up, Reah wants J 0- nah to clarify things for her "He can't be a felon without another trial,